Back Story:  Like a majority of larger cities, Reno’s future sustainability is  threatened by its  exploding population of individuals mis-identified as “homeless.” Reno’s homeless population of 80 in 2017, grew over 2000% by 2024 to 2,000, and is projected to exceed 30,000 by 2031. This situation has caused immeasurable damage to public safety, social services, and the local economy.

There is practically NO “legitimately-homeless” population in Reno … or anywhere else.

For 50+ years I’ve worked to help homeless men and women get off the street, not only in Reno, but also in Detroit, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Ventura County. During all this time, I’ve never met ONE legitimately-homeless person.

Legitimately homeless individuals are those men and women who don’t want to live on the street, are willing to do everything they can to avoid it, and as a result, they rarely end up there. When they have to resort to sleeping in a car, park, or alley, it’s typically for only a few days at the beginning of their homeless experience.

When their lives start falling apart for a variety of reasons, the legitimately- homeless are willing to start doing whatever is required to correct their situation. They immediately begin taking the following actions.

• Make every effort to reconcile with their families.

• Live without any drugs or alcohol.

• Are willing to take any available job and obey the laws.

• The legitimately-homeless are willing to accept living in any clean/sober residence or treatment program, and don’t complain about the rules being “too strict.”

• They courageously confront delayed legal issues, including: suspended drivers licenses, overdue child support, outstanding bills, warrants, etc.

• If the legitimately-homeless have problems that affect their mental health – and they frequently do, they immediately contact mental health services, attend counseling sessions, and accept temporary medication if necessary.

• They connect with local churches and start building stronger spiritual foundations for their lives.

• Legitimately-homeless pet owners find organizations or individuals to foster their 4-legged friends, until the owners are back on their feet and able to provide their pets with consistent care.

Men and women who have lost their housing and are willing to do the things I described, have a high rate of success in returning to normal lives.

The problem is that the legitimately-homeless are only 10% or less of all the people you see living on the streets or in government shelters like Reno’s dysfunctional CARES Campus.

Who are the OTHER 90% of people on the street or in government shelters who are masquerading as legitimately homeless,”?

This group is most accurately described as vagrants-by-choice.

These are individuals defined as: wandering from place to place with no fixed residence, even though they frequently receive sizable disability checks. They abuse drugs and/or alcohol, have no interest in working, get their primary income from begging, stealing, robbing, trafficking in drugs or sex, and are considered a public nuisance.

There’s a huge difference between the legitimately homeless, and the vagrants-by-choice.

What has caused Reno’s (and most cities’) homeless problems to spiral out of control, is their insistence on treating both the 10% legitimately-homeless and the 90% vagrants-by-choice exactly the same.  It doesn’t work.

Reno’s failed approach is similar to every other city that accepts federal “low-barrier” homeless funding. Counter-productive federal restrictions regarding this money prohibit government shelters from enforcing accountable behavior with their clients. That means that government-funded homeless shelters in our cities:

• Can not restrict clients’ drug/alcohol use or out-of-control behavior.

• They can not require their homeless clients to work, or accept available job-training or mental health treatment.

• They can not even require clients to clean up after themselves or get out of bed.

Not surprisingly, Reno’s federally funded shelter is typical. It is violent, crime-ridden, and accomplishes almost nothing for its clients. What is even worse, is where that kind of situation leads.

Government shelters that provide clients with everything-for-nothing in a lawless environment, attract more and more vagrants-by-choice every year, and less and less legitimately-homeless. The latter group is serious about reclaiming their lives. They opt for privately-funded programs that enforce strong rules and produce excellent results.

In Reno and in your city, also, it is not the legitimately-homeless population that is increasing. Those individuals are taking the steps previously described, and are moving on with improved lives.

The increased homeless populations are not what they appear to be.

They are almost exclusively the parasitical and predatory vagrants-by-choice group: hiding behind the generic label of “homeless.” They are not victims of anything but their own addictions, criminal behavior, and resistance to change.

These vagrants are not going anywhere, as long as their “host” cities keep providing mega-million dollar shelters, abundant food, clothing and money, allow limitless drug use and criminal behavior, and instruct their local police and courts to pity these individuals and go soft on enforcing the laws.

There will be a reckoning in cities that continue to pursue this self-destructive path. Just like in nature, Reno and all the other “host” cities cannot forever sustain being leached-off by the vagrant-by-choice parasites.

Sooner or later, our cities will collapse (Oakland? San Francisco? New York?).  When these host cities have nothing left for the parasitical vagrants-by-choice to consume, they’ll leave their collapsing “host” communities – including YOUR collapsing host community, and move on to find new ones.

Reno can prevent this doomsday scenario and so can your city, if you just do the following.

• Stop accepting federal funds for homeless programs, so your homeless shelters can enforce the rules regarding drug use, behavior, and employment.

• Turn-over the operation of your community’s homeless activities to a non-profit coalition of local churches. Church-based organizations like Victory Outreach and Gospel Missions would be logical leaders for these groups, because they have decades of success in helping the legitimately-homeless, and tolerating nothing from the vagrant-by-choice group.

• Make your city enforce the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and enforce the laws firmly and fairly with ALL residents, regardless of their housing or economic situations.

The results your community could get with this church coalition/non-governmental plan, would be immediate and encouraging.

Your legitimately-homeless population would get better help than ever before, regain stable and permanent living situations, and would rapidly become contributing community residents.

As for the vagrants-by-choice? All of them would watch the positive way your new homeless ideas were working in your cities. Some would choose to drop their unproductive ways and earnestly seek help as newly-minted legitimately-homeless.

What about the vagrants-by-choice who did not want to change? They wouldn’t have any more public shelter facilities to exploit and take advantage of in your community. They’d get tired of being arrested for illegal scams and going to jail for breaking the laws. Quicker than you’d imagine, most of these vagrants-by-vhoicr would choose to pack-up and move to other more liberal cities that were still willing to tolerate their abuse. And that’s ok; because your community would not only be free of this scourge, but would also be a role model for other cities.

About the Author

Paul D. White is the Founder of Education Crusade. He welcomes feedback at white.pauld@gmail.com.

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